HudBay Minerals Inc. Offices

HudBay Minerals is a Canadian mining company focused on the discovery, production and marketing of base and precious metals. With the economy in the dump and gold and other minerals at record levels, I wish I were them. Also, this is our first multi-national mineral company office submission.

In their new LEED Silver headquarters, HudBay Minerals decided to integrate some of their trade into the office by mounting pure zinc ingots, stamped with the company logo on the wall adjacent the elevator. As with many of the design companies we’ve seen, showing clients and potential customers something your company has produced can be a wonderful asset in the office.

The design was inspired by images from the company’s extensive photo library, ranging from the mining of the raw materials to the smelting processes and the finished products. Over the years, these processes have been carefully documented, producing an archive of stunning photographs that evoke the work of Ed Burtynsky and Jesse Bolles.

The ceiling is composed of panels of recycled spun aluminum, whose open cells allow light from above to filter through. This also evokes the netting that wraps the ceilings of the mines.

Stepping into the reception area, a dramatic view of the skyline of Toronto is framed on one side by three freestanding stone walls that define a large meeting room, and on the other by a commissioned installation by Toronto artist Dennis Lin. The walls are comprised of rough split face stone, inspired by a HudBay photo of vertical cliffs that have been hewn from the rock, while the art piece of copper and walnut evokes both the strata of the earth and the sinuous line of copper as it is poured into moulds in the company’s foundries. Suspended above the seating area, a custom sized “Mercury” light fixture from Artemide by Ross Lovegrove evokes droplets of molten metal.

A rich burned orange colour is used for both fabrics and back painted glass at coffee stations. This was inspired by the colour of molten copper. In place of a more traditional corporate art programme, Taylor Smyth collaborated with Darren Alexander, an art curator, to select actual photos from the HudBay archives, which have been blown up and line the walls of the building’s core.

The concrete structure of the base building has been left exposed, broken up by expanses of acoustic wood ceiling. Offices and workstations are fabricated of teak panels and glass.